Emir Sultan Mosque

A 35-year-old man arrested for leaving a beheaded doll at the Emir Sultan Mosque in Amsterdam, confessed, the Public Prosecutor announced on Thursday. He was released from custody, but the investigation against him continues, Het Parool reports.

According to the newspaper, the man in question is former Pegida member Hugo Kuijper.

Amsterdam mayor Jozias van Aartsen is receiving signals that the number of incidents targeting minorities in the city is on the rise, he said on Wednesday in a city council debate about a decapitated doll left at the Emir Sultan Mosque in Amsterdam Noord last week, Het Parool and AT5 report.

A bloodied, beheaded doll was found in front of the Emir Sultan Mosque in Amsterdam Noord early Thursday morning. The doll's body, found laying below the severed head attached by metal hook to a fence, had a note denouncing "Islamization" pinned to it.

"I'm asking you not to worry about this incident," mosque president Kamber Şener wrote on Facebook, saying they reported the incident to police. "I hope they will find the perpetrators as soon as they can," he continued, asking for the city to unite against such incidents.